Juha Christensen Says Sonopia Is Not Shutting Down, But Is Waiting For Better Times For MVNOs

Reports that Sonopia was shutting down spread like wildfire yesterday, but its founder Juha Christensen, said today it’s not true. The company is still alive, but drastically scaling back its business and essentially hibernating until the U.S. MVNO market turns around. Sonopia has eliminated all of its U.S. employees from its Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters. Even Christensen holds the unpaid position of Chairman. In their development offices in Ukraine, they have 30 people or half as many as before. As they wait, Christensen is looking at expanding into Europe, where MVNOs have performed better but no decisions have been made. “U.S. consumers have not warmed up to MVNOs, there really hasn’t been an MVNO that has shown the way and made a spectacular success out of it, and in Europe, you